Cricket will probably continue to rule the hearts back home but India's man with the golden gun Abhinav Bindra desperately hopes his Olympic gold changes the face of sports in the country.
- Images: Abhinav wins gold!
The 25-year-old Abhinav was poise and grace personified as he talked about his attaining Olympic immortality and its possible ramifications in a country that remains almost biased towards cricket.
"I sincerely hope my medal changes the face of India's Olympic sports," the bespectacled shooter told reporters after winning India's first individual gold medal in the 10m Air Rifle event at the Beijing Shooting Range at the Beijing Olympics on Monday.
- Congratulate Abhinav Bindra!
"For me, life will go on as usual but I sincerely hope Olympic sports get a leg-up. It's not a priority back home and I hope more focus is paid to these events," said the shooter from Chandigarh.
Asked about his scorching run in the finals, Abhinav said it was a conscious plan to pull out all stops and it paid off.
"I entered the final as fourth, which means I had to go all out for it. That's why I was so aggressive and it paid off in the end," he said.
Asked when he realised that he was at the threshold of history, Abhinav said, "I was not bothered about history. All I wanted to was to shoot aggressively and score well and that's exactly what I did.
"I started my sighting on a poor note but soon things started going my way and it remained so. I guess this was my day."
Abhinav, whose career at one stage was jeopardised by a nagging back injury, said it was not easy to keep himself keyed up all along.
"I worked hard, left home and trained in Germany. It only proves that if you keep working hard, you would have your day someday and fortunately, it was my day today.
"My parents, family and coaches stood by me all along and I owe it to them," he said.